Presidents Fidel Castro
of Cuba and Hu Jintao of China signed 16 economic cooperation agreements,
including a lucrative investment in Cuban nickel production, only hours
after the third visit by a Chinese leader here began.

The visit was the final stop on Hu's first Latin America tour, which also
took him to Brazil, Argentina and Chile, where he attended an Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit.

Hu was welcomed at the Havana airport by Defense Minister
Raul Castro, the president's brother and the number two in the Cuban government.
Hu then headed to the presidential palace for talks with Castro.

There, Castro, recuperating from a broken knee, welcomed
the Chinese leader with a "Viva China!" from his wheelchair before
inviting Hu into the government palace for private talks.

"We sincerely wish that the Cuban people march
without surrender on the road to building socialism," the Chinese leader
said.

Hu said his "visit will achieve our goal of deepening
our friendship and finance out cooperation," he said.

Both sides have hailed the importance of the 29-hour
visit, which came as reformist China enjoys a booming economy, while Cuba,
the only communist state in the Western Hemisphere, remains mired in a deep
crisis.

Castro already has made it clear he expected the visit
to bring significant investments to the Caribbean island nation, whose economy
has suffered a steady decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Only two hours after his arrival, Hu and Castro publicly
signed 16 cooperation agreements, including one boosting the extraction
of nickel from Cuba's top world reserve estimated at 800 million tonnes.

The agreement calls for building an extraction facility
that will produce 22,500 tons of nickel and cobalt per year.

Located in the Cuban province of Holguin, 800 kilometers
(500 miles) east of Havana, the Las Cariocas plant will boost Cuban nickel
production from its current 75,000 tonnes a year to almost 100,000 tonnes,
a long-sought goal of the Cuban government.

The plant will be 49 percent owned by China's Minmetal
and 51 percent by Cuba's Cubaniquel monopoly.

China and Europe are the chief importers of Cuban
nickel.

Other agreements signed by Hu and Castro favor the
biotechnology, tourism, telecommunications, fishing, education and health
sectors.

On the sidelines of the presidential summit, representatives
of 37 Chinese and about 60 Cuban companies met Monday to explore bilateral
trade opportunities.

"China today is an important partner for Cuba
and represents almost 10 percent of our island's foreign trade," Cuba's
Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said in his opening address at the
First Sino-Cuban Investment and Trade Forum, held at a Havana hotel.

He said bilateral trade between January and October
reached 600 million dollars.

Castro, 78, who maintains the firm grip he has held
over Cuba for 45 years, suffered a fall late last month which broke his
left knee and confined him to a wheelchair.

Hu, 61, China's president since March 2003, appeared
comfortably in command at the APEC summit, only months after his predecessor
Jiang Zemin resigned his last official position, as commander in chief.

His trip to Havana is the third by a Chinese president,
following 1993 and 2001 visits by Jiang.

The Chinese leader is expected to reiterate Beijing's
rejection of the US embargo against Cuba, which US President George W. Bush
further tightened in June.

But their discussions on the future development of
socialism are likely to remain private, as has been the case in past discussions
between leaders of the two countries.

The encounter is likely to have its share of
tension, however, as Castro has rejected the path of reform China's leaders
have followed for 25 years.

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